Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - General Cooperative gameplay in Dragon Commander

Hello everyone! I apologize if this has already been touched on somewhere, I did some searching but couldn't find any concrete information - I have some questions about the cooperative gameplay that I'm hoping can be answered:

1. How does cooperative gameplay work in DC? Is it two players being on the same team but having different territories, do they have the same territory but different units, or can they share control of everything? (This is on the tactical battlefield and campaign map).

2. Did the feature of one player doing the RTS control in tactical combat and one player being the dragon commander make it into the game? I read a few forum posts that talked about this, and the developers asking if it was a desired feature to be added, but there was never any concrete answer to if it was actually implemented. I enjoy RTS games, but I find it difficult to micromanage large amount of units, whereas my co-op partner finds it easy to micromanage. So, this mode seems very interesting for us. The Co-Optimus website says the feature is there, but I'd like to be sure before getting my hopes up.

Other than these questions, it definitely seems like an interesting game! Thanks for your time.

When you create a multi-player lobby, each player/AI has a faction (zealots, imperials, hordes or warlords): different factions are opponents, while the same are allies. Players still have their own units and countries, etc, and act separately on the strategy and RTS maps. In RTS you can send units to help your ally, but there is no direct sharing of resources, AFAIK.

There is no co-op mode where one player exclusively controls the dragon and the other the armies. You can play that way, for the most part, but the person focusing on the dragon still has a base, and can be defeated if it is taken over.

Before everyone switched over to working on D:OS there was mention of a future update for DC at some point. Maybe after the patch for D:OS that adds a couple companions next month(?), Larian will describe their plans for DC.

I see, well, thanks for the answers! It's a shame they didn't go through with the idea of having direct cooperative in the same country, this is one of the few games where that idea would actually work well, in my opinion:

In a regular RTS game, one player would be playing a super unit, although it would most likely still be pretty generic in being a tank or aircraft, whereas this game's unit is unique enough to be interesting. It brings back a Battle Engine Aquila / Ace Combat / Lair vibe where you are contributing to a large battle, but this time it would have been the battle of the commander who is focusing on standard RTS gameplay, making you feel like their secret weapon among their forces. I'm sure there is a niche for that among cooperative players, as both the RTS commander and dragon benefit from being micromanaged more than switching between them could easily do.

I do admit that some of the old concerns such as one player becoming bored with the dragon was possible, but it might have been remedied by allowing shared RTS control with the option of one of them becoming the dragon if needed, otherwise a small group of units could be micromanaged which is one of the benefits of sharing control of an army, especially on harder difficulties with worse odds.

Finally, I haven't played the game so I can't be sure of 4 player RTS battles where everyone is an enemy, but if so and this feature had been added, there could have been eight players participating in battle at once, four strategic masterminds vying for control with a spectacular and constant dragon battle going on overhead - it might have been epic to feel you have a champion fighting for air superiority. I fear this idea wasn't given much praise when it was being pitched because it would be less effective in general multiplayer, but I'm sure of there being groups of people who seek grand coop-competitive gameplay within friend circles, or even in battles organised from groups, myself being one of them.

All the same, still an excellent game with some definitely unique ideas. Thanks for the speedy response

If the developers are still looking for suggestions, adding the ability to share control of a country (assuming that isn't a significant change) would add another dynamic for players who are looking for a challenge.

Part of the fun of cooperative gameplay is beating harsh odds using superior teamwork and skill, and a game like DC which benefits from micromanagement (the dragon and unit abilities) lends itself very well to this idea. There is a lot of satisfaction in beating two AIs with one excellent army, or the hardest AI, and this is one of the reasons to play co-op over being on the same team, as generally the odds are worse and the challenge is higher. There are other possible benefits, like training another player on how to play strategy, helping in RTS mode, and would also satisfy the players looking for dedicated RTS commander and dragon. A further refinement of the idea might be not allowing the dragon controller to despawn for a time after taking damage to encourage more tactical play (perhaps a server setting), making the dragon a more in-depth experience than would be possible in SP.

Finally, sometimes it's just fun to win the game together as one country instead of two. This really seems to be the only RTS-orientated multiplayer option the game is missing. If there is thought of another patch, hopefully this helps!